Cold callers at the door in Charlbury - is it a scam?

Thu 24 Nov 2011, 08:24

hi thought i would let everyone know i did sign up with NCDS i had a phone call from them last night to thank me for doing this i did say a few people around my town was a bit worried that it wasnt all above board and she told me just to let everyone know that they can always ask the caller for the information ie phone number of the charity and ring them. she was very understanding as not always people are who they say they are hope this helps a little bit.

Tue 22 Nov 2011, 10:01

Sounds like NCDS has sub-contracted to one of these hard-sell door-to-door companies that pay their workers only by commission, claiming they're self-employed when actually they're employees and deserve minimum wage. I saw it on Panorama recently. I'm jumping to conclusions of course, but the tactics just sound too desperate to be your run-of-the-mill charity collection.

Mon 21 Nov 2011, 21:55

I had a visit on Saturday afternoon from what sounds like the same person Andrew. He was insouciantly sucking on the end of his pen the whole time he was talking, which did little to endear him to me. Foolishly, when he asked me if I knew anyone who was deaf I said that my father was a little hard of hearing: "Oh, so you have personal experience of deafness then!" Cue loud twanging of heartstrings in my ear, which at least proves I have yet to go deaf myself I suppose.

I didn't get to the direct debit stage; he said something about signing me up so that he could come round periodically in order to "collect my loose change". When I said I thought I'd give it a miss he crept away like a lamb - I usually have to throw rocks at these people to make them leave!

The silly thing is, had he been shaking a bucket I probably would have dropped some shrapnel into it but I didn't much care for all this "signing up" rigmarole. I can't believe that NDCS will (a) win friends and influence people or (b) make much money using this approach.

Mon 21 Nov 2011, 11:49

The chap from the National Deaf Children's Society certainly appeared to be genuine, but I took exception to his 'emotional blackmail' approach: having spotted our baby through the window (ie intrusively) he tried mentioning him as a sales ploy. I've actually complained to NDCS about this. They're a good charity, of course; but why anyone would give direct debit details to a stranger on the doorstep is beyond me.

Mon 21 Nov 2011, 11:35

Further to Chris's advice, if you have any doubts about the person, shut the door, leave them on the doorstep and call the charity they claim to represent to check on their accreditation. If the person isn't there when you get back, they probably were not genuine in the first place.

The one that called here - said his name was Jamail - had an official-looking badge and purple-coloured jacket, and said he was soliciting for a deaf children's charity. Unfortunately he was not really articulate enough for us to find out whether or not he was genuine .... and he then left fairly abruptly once I persisted in asking him what he was actually trying to achieve.

Mon 21 Nov 2011, 10:07

ask to see their accreditation from the charity....

Fri 18 Nov 2011, 21:05

These people have been operating in the villages around Didcot for over a week now

Fri 18 Nov 2011, 20:17

2 people I know in Charlbury have had cold callers today asking for a regular donation of £2.00 a month. One of these actually had two callers - one asking for £2 for the Red Cross - the other asking for £2 for the deaf. On one occasion they came in and asked for bank details.
Does anyone have any more information?